Our third Rural Social Enterprise Session took place on the 13th of June and prompted some interesting discussion.
We were first joined by Robyn Barclay from Third Sector Lab. Third Sector Lab have extensive experience of working in digital and design for charities, social enterprises, community groups and public sector. One of the biggest projects undertaken by Third Sector Lab is to connect organisations within the Third Sector with digital trustees.
A Digital Trustee is a volunteer with experience in digital, data or design who sits on the Board of a third sector organisation. They provide guidance to the organisation around how they can best make use of digital as well as insight into best digital practices.
Next Aimee from Inspiralba gave the group a quick overview of the Rural Social Enterprise Hub Stakeholder Report which records data and activity from April 2022 to March 2023.
You can find the full Rural Social Enterprise Stakeholder Report 2023 here: https://ruralsehub.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Rural-SE-Hub-Stakeholder-Report-Apr-2023.pdf
Kim Wallace from Social Enterprise Scotland (SES) spoke a little about the Buy Social Working Group that they recently established. This group was established with the aim to promote social enterprises, goods and services, business to business sales and social procurement. SES are aware many Social Enterprise Networks in Scotland current operate their own social enterprise gift directories and, as a result, are trying to enter into discussions to ensure that they’re not duplicating services or competing with other work that’s happening across the country.
SES know that lots of social enterprises and community groups, etc. are actually working with privates in different capacities. So the aim of the group is to get the bigger picture and bring people together to reach an agreement and ensure that the initiative runs smoothly while also taking into account the differences between regions i.e. rural areas.
The full notes from the session can be found here.